Israel’s Obstinacy

1“Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel

And who came forth from the loins of Judah,

Who swear by the name of the Lord

And invoke the God of Israel,

But not in truth nor in righteousness.

2For they call themselves after the holy city

And lean on the God of Israel;

The Lord of hosts is His name.

3I declared the former things long ago

And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.

Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

4Because I know that you are obstinate,

And your neck is an iron sinew

And your forehead bronze,

5Therefore I declared them to you long ago,

Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,

So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,

And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’

6You have heard; look at all this.

And you, will you not declare it?

I proclaim to you new things from this time,

Even hidden things which you have not known.

7They are created now and not long ago;

And before today you have not heard them,

So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8You have not heard, you have not known.

Even from long ago your ear has not been open,

Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously;

And you have been called a rebel from birth.

9For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,

And for My praise I restrain it for you,

In order not to cut you off.

10Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

11For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;

For how can My name be profaned?

And My glory I will not give to another.

Deliverance Promised

12“Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;

I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.

13Surely My hand founded the earth,

And My right hand spread out the heavens;

When I call to them, they stand together.

14Assemble, all of you, and listen!

Who among them has declared these things?

The Lord loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,

I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.

16Come near to Me, listen to this:

From the first I have not spoken in secret,

From the time it took place, I was there.

And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

17Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,

Who leads you in the way you should go.

18If only you had paid attention to My commandments!

Then your well-being would have been like a river,

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19Your descendants would have been like the sand,

And your offspring like its grains;

Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”

20Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!

Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this,

Send it out to the end of the earth;

Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

21They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts.

He made the water flow out of the rock for them;

He split the rock and the water gushed forth.

22“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.

Salvation Reaches to the End of the Earth

1Listen to Me, O islands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called Me from the womb;

From the body of My mother He named Me.

2He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,

In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me;

And He has also made Me a select arrow,

He has hidden Me in His quiver.

3He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,

In Whom I will show My glory.”

4But I said, “I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My reward with My God.”

5And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him

(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,

And My God is My strength),

6He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also make You a light of the nations

So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

7Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,

To the despised One,

To the One abhorred by the nation,

To the Servant of rulers,

“Kings will see and arise,

Princes will also bow down,

Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

8Thus says the Lord,

“In a favorable time I have answered You,

And in a day of salvation I have helped You;

And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people,

To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;

9Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’

To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

Along the roads they will feed,

And their pasture will be on all bare heights.

10They will not hunger or thirst,

Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;

For He who has compassion on them will lead them

And will guide them to springs of water.

11I will make all My mountains a road,

And My highways will be raised up.

12Behold, these will come from afar;

And lo, these will come from the north and from the west,

And these from the land of Sinim.”

13Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!

Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted His people

And will have compassion on His afflicted.

Promise to Zion

14But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,

And the Lord has forgotten me.”

15“Can a woman forget her nursing child

And have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

16Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me.

17Your builders hurry;

Your destroyers and devastators

Will depart from you.

18Lift up your eyes and look around;

All of them gather together, they come to you.

As I live,” declares the Lord,

“You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.

19For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land—

Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants,

And those who swallowed you will be far away.

20The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,

‘The place is too cramped for me;

Make room for me that I may live here.’

21Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me,

Since I have been bereaved of my children

And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?

And who has reared these?

Behold, I was left alone;

From where did these come?’ ”

22Thus says the Lord God,

“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations

And set up My standard to the peoples;

And they will bring your sons in their bosom,

And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

23Kings will be your guardians,

And their princesses your nurses.

They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth

And lick the dust of your feet;

And you will know that I am the Lord;

Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

24“Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,

Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

25Surely, thus says the Lord,

“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,

And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued;

For I will contend with the one who contends with you,

And I will save your sons.

26I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh,

And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;

And all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior

And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

God Helps His Servant

1Thus says the Lord,

“Where is the certificate of divorce

By which I have sent your mother away?

Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you?

Behold, you were sold for your iniquities,

And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

2Why was there no man when I came?

When I called, why was there none to answer?

Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom?

Or have I no power to deliver?

Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,

I make the rivers a wilderness;

Their fish stink for lack of water

And die of thirst.

3I clothe the heavens with blackness

And make sackcloth their covering.”

4The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples,

That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

5The Lord God has opened My ear;

And I was not disobedient

Nor did I turn back.

6I gave My back to those who strike Me,

And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;

I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.

7For the Lord God helps Me,

Therefore, I am not disgraced;

Therefore, I have set My face like flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.

8He who vindicates Me is near;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand up to each other;

Who has a case against Me?

Let him draw near to Me.

9Behold, the Lord God helps Me;

Who is he who condemns Me?

Behold, they will all wear out like a garment;

The moth will eat them.

10Who is among you that fears the Lord,

That obeys the voice of His servant,

That walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

11Behold, all you who kindle a fire,

Who encircle yourselves with firebrands,

Walk in the light of your fire

And among the brands you have set ablaze.

This you will have from My hand:

You will lie down in torment.

Israel Exhorted

1“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,

Who seek the Lord:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn

And to the quarry from which you were dug.

2Look to Abraham your father

And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain;

When he was but one I called him,

Then I blessed him and multiplied him.”

3Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion;

He will comfort all her waste places.

And her wilderness He will make like Eden,

And her desert like the garden of the Lord;

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

Thanksgiving and sound of a melody.

4“Pay attention to Me, O My people,

And give ear to Me, O My nation;

For a law will go forth from Me,

And I will set My justice for a light of the peoples.

5My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth,

And My arms will judge the peoples;

The coastlands will wait for Me,

And for My arm they will wait expectantly.

6Lift up your eyes to the sky,

Then look to the earth beneath;

For the sky will vanish like smoke,

And the earth will wear out like a garment

And its inhabitants will die in like manner;

But My salvation will be forever,

And My righteousness will not wane.

7Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,

A people in whose heart is My law;

Do not fear the reproach of man,

Nor be dismayed at their revilings.

8For the moth will eat them like a garment,

And the grub will eat them like wool.

But My righteousness will be forever,

And My salvation to all generations.”

9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;

Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.

Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces,

Who pierced the dragon?

10Was it not You who dried up the sea,

The waters of the great deep;

Who made the depths of the sea a pathway

For the redeemed to cross over?

11So the ransomed of the Lord will return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

And everlasting joy will be on their heads.

They will obtain gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

12“I, even I, am He who comforts you.

Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies

And of the son of man who is made like grass,

13That you have forgotten the Lord your Maker,

Who stretched out the heavens

And laid the foundations of the earth,

That you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor,

As he makes ready to destroy?

But where is the fury of the oppressor?

14The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking. 15For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name). 16I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ ”

17Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem,

You who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger;

The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.

18There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne,

Nor is there one to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared.

19These two things have befallen you;

Who will mourn for you?

The devastation and destruction, famine and sword;

How shall I comfort you?

20Your sons have fainted,

They lie helpless at the head of every street,

Like an antelope in a net,

Full of the wrath of the Lord,

The rebuke of your God.

21Therefore, please hear this, you afflicted,

Who are drunk, but not with wine:

22Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God

Who contends for His people,

“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling,

The chalice of My anger;

You will never drink it again.

23I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,

Who have said to you, ‘Lie down that we may walk over you.’

You have even made your back like the ground

And like the street for those who walk over it.”